Wedgnock Winter Mud & Mayhem - Race 1 - 08 November 2008...
Distance: 10k (6.2 miles)
In a time of...
hh:mm:ss
00:43:07
Finishing Position: 4
Number of finishers: 84
Putting me in the top: 4.76%
Having spent some time considering whether or not to enter this race series I finally decided I'd give them a go – they sounded fun, a bit of change from the norm – and since it worked out at a mere £4 a race, It'd have been rude not to! A quick email to my good friend Howard the day before race day mentioning there was a local XC race on – and he was up for it and raring to go.
We arrived at Race HQ separately and soon made our way to the registration desk so Howard could put his entry in and I could collect my number. With that done and having said hello to a few other club members, it was back to the cars to get changed and ready for the start. Spikes were my footwear of choice with the longest studs I had available (12mm), and Howard soon changed his thoughts on using normal trainers after seeing a brief section of the course we were about to encounter and switched to 'Astro-Turf' boots.
The event was situated in the grounds of an adventure sports company… they do plenty of activities like quad-biking, paintballing, clay pigeon shooting etc – yet whilst I was aware of this, it didn't stop the momentary panic and surge of fear that I may have missed the start of the race as I heard a gun fire. I quickly checked the time and still had 10mins to spare. I finished changing, headed back to the start area, popped to the loo and had ample time to complete a 45second warm up and walk over to the start line – OOPS!
The race organizer gave instructions as to how the event would work saying "Okay runners, you can see the table opposite the start line, you will need to collect an elastic band from the table on each lap and keep hold of it to indicate how many laps you have completed… So you'll come down from the embankment and collect an elastic band, and go round again, then you'll come round the table again and then you'll go onto the finish"…
We lined up to the right of the field, then noticed the course was to bear to the left, so quickly changed tactics and lined up to the left of the field. Away we went and I surged forwards with the front runners.
Over a hard packed bit of gravel (spikes nastily crunching away beneath me), we were onto grass, up a short and gentle incline before hitting the mud. Thankfully the mud at this point was fairly firm. It was in large mounds with deep ruts that'd been dug away by quad bikes, 4x4 vehicle or tractors that had been negotiating the terrain… You had to stay on your toes and keep your eyes wide open looking for the path of least resistance with firm areas of mud. Thankfully the banked ground and short sharp climbs/drops were no problem with spikes, the mud was hard packed and very 'clay' like; anyone who'd opted to run in normal trainers would've most certainly been fighting a tough battle to avoid falling flat on their arse!
After the muddy mounds we entered the muddy forest area, and the first challenge the forest section offered was a very steep climb. Thankfully although wet and slightly muddy, my spikes gave fantastic grip and I managed up the hill without slipping, though it was incredibly hard work on the legs! The next mile or so was fantastic fun, bounding through a heavily forested area, up and down steep drops and climbs, over hard packed mud and through soft sinking muddy puddles – even with my spikes on there were places that I simply had no control over which way my feet were sliding, all I could do was to steady myself as best I could and power through – always looking for the line of least resistance. Uhh….uhhhh….. woah!!! *SPLAT* my left foot slipped away underneath me and I fell; thankfully I just fell to one knee and slid along a few feet before recovering. It could so easily have been a face first into the mud type affair!
*Apologies for the rest of the report being so brief – I wrote it the first half a good while ago and now I can barely remember the event!*
The mud soon became a lot drier and more hard packed as we came to the end of the forest section – where I ran past the effort supportive 'dad' as he was snapping away the official race photos. A section along a hard packed gravel track and I could hear my spikes crunching away underneath me again – a lap of a field and onto some more hard packed gravel… then a short but VERY steep climb onto the grassy big mound of, down the other side, up another, and down again. Then it was a rope climb up the last mound before completing the lap.
"One down, one to go!" I thought… and pushed on through the forest, negotiating the deep muddy ruts once more. The second part of the forest (the more hard packed mud bit) seemed much easier to run through… though perhaps that's just because I was recovering through there. Along the hard packed gravel track, round the field, and I was hurting badly, very much looking forward to the finish. Up onto the grassy mounds one last time, when I look across to the finish area and see the race leaders going past finish and onto a third lap "Nooooooooooooo!!!!!" I thought to myself… "There can’t be another lap… Can there???" alas there was… I struggled round the last lap, commenting to dad as I trundled past gasping for air – "I thought it was two laps!".
Still, I hung in there, and got my 4th place finish. I couldn't be too disheartened with that!
